


Pauses

by songspinner9



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 08:56:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songspinner9/pseuds/songspinner9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In between Day Two and Three of "Children of Earth", our heroes have to go to ground, and Ianto's not quite finished with what he began...a fill-in piece for what happened before Day Three. **SPOILERS FOR CHILDREN OF EARTH**</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The BBC owns Doctor Who and Torchwood. I'm just dabbling.

"Furthest safehouse out, Ianto? The one that isn't on the books?" Gwen asks the question softly from the front seat. She's driving as fast as she can away from the quarry, staying hidden down the back roads.

"That'd work, yeah, for now." Taking the blanket Rhys hands him, Ianto shakes out folds of blue material. "Take the back roads up and I'll tell you where to turn. We should be able to stay there for at least six hours before we have to move again."

His grateful eyes takes in the sight of Jack's own red-rimmed gaze, framed in dirt and cement dust and slowly fading bruises. He lets his hands feel the soft texture of the blanket he is carefully tucking around those tense shoulders; it is an odd contrast to the stiffness of drying patches of blood that are now unconnected to any visible injury.

When Jack's eyes dart around the interior of the small car and then suddenly close again tightly, Ianto's brain makes the connection and he moves before he could voice it. The younger man reaches out and triggers the manual control for the little car's window nearest Jack, letting the cold, damp air hit their faces.

With a little gasp of relieved breath at not being completely sealed into anything, Jack leans his dusty head back on the seat. "Ianto..."

"I know. Sorry. Better?"

"Thanks. How did you...mmm. You know everything."

"Yup."

"You found me." There are layers of meaning in Jack's voice just then as varied than the rock strata in the quarry they just fled.

"That we did." Ianto reaches out and rests his hand gently on Jack's, knowing from past experience with Jack's deaths to be careful. "Are you in pain? What's still healing?"

"Lots of things." The Captain's voice is rough and still wheezing a little, so Ianto grabs a bottle of water from one of the packs. He lets Jack drink, only pulling it back once to wordlessly remind him to slow down.

"Jack, is there anything I can do to help, now, I mean?"

"Get all this off me."

"Do you want me to find something to get the dust off?"

"No, the chains, please..."

Ianto straightens against the seat, realization kicking in again through the fog of exhaustion, images of soothing this man through nightmares suddenly at the forefront of memory. "God, I'm sorry...I didn't....hang on, let me...I think the lock picks survived everything."

He pulls the little set out of one of the inside pockets of his jacket.

"This shouldn't take long, Jack. Those are mere UNIT equipment, after all." There is a weary accomplishment in feeling the older man's face crease into a smile against his shoulder, as well as hearing a giggle from Gwen in the front seat. "And then some more water for you, I think."

He bends over Jack's manacled wrists to work at the locks. They need to get to the safehouse to go to ground for a bit and figure out who's doing this, and remind Gwen where to drive in a few minutes, but right now, he needs to do one last thing to free his Captain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In between Day Two and Three, our heroes have to go to ground, and now it's time for Rhys and Gwen's reactions as they can stop for a bit...a fill-in piece for what happened before Day Three. **SPOILERS FOR CHILDREN OF EARTH**

They've been on the road for almost two hours when Gwen points to the right. "There's a little safehouse about a mile down that road. Hasn't been used in a while. That's the one Ianto meant. Take a right here..."

Rhys had taken over the driving a while ago, when it was clear that events were starting to catch up to Gwen. Now he takes a quick look at the rear view mirror, shaking his head affectionately at what he sees. Ianto has pulled Jack down to sleep, draping Rhys' coat over the older man and is curling around him to keep him warm. Ianto, Rhys muses, is often still and focused, but it's probably the only time he's ever seen Jack like this; the man is usually in constant motion. "I think they're both out."

"That wouldn't surprise me at all." Gwen twists around to see into the back seat. "Jack's died at least four times in the last two days and I don't think Ianto's actually stopped moving for more than four minutes at a time since we got away from...from what happened to the Hub."

A second, worried glance in the mirror reassures Rhys that things are, just for the moment, as all right as they are going to be. He shudders, trying not to imagine what Jack has been through in the past 48 hours. "I see that gash on Ianto's face. Is he hurt anywhere else?"

Gwen smiles softly, shaking her head. "Nothing too bad, I don't think. He was able to use that construction equipment just fine. Exhaustion and bruises, I assume. I'm sure we can check him over once we get there."

"Jack will probably want to do that himself, Gwen. I know I would. I will. Are you really all right? All that running around and shooting and..."

He hasn't even looked over at her but he can feel her glare at him a little.

"I told you I was fine. But if you must...there are two bedrooms there, so we can be together tonight, just the two of us, for as long as we have before we're running again."

"The three of us." Rhys grins again as he says it, and lifts one of his hands off the steering wheel for a moment to grab his wife's hand and kiss it.

 

***

 

"There is only one bathroom."

"We'll take turns, you big baby!" Gwen shouts back to Rhys, who's gone exploring down the hall of the tiny cottage to find the kitchen, and then she opens a window to clear the musty air. "Ianto," she says in a calmer tone. "Jack first, with you, all right?"

"Right." He takes a little more of Jack's weight on his shoulder, grasping the older man's wrist. "But I could..."

"Shut it." Gwen decides that exasperation is fast winning over her respect for this man. "I'm not that pregnant yet," she adds, keeping her voice low. "So don't you dare try and coddle me. Take care of Jack and take care of yourself. I seem to remember that there a stash of clothes in a few sizes in that cupboard as well a well-stocked first aid kid in there."

"I...what?"

"Your face, Ianto." She shakes her head. "Everyone else but you, as usual. Deal with that cut. The last thing we need is any of us with infections and fever while we're running."

"Yes, ma'am. Channeling Owen just because the world seems to be ending again?"

"Cheeky. I'd think he'd have been swearing more than I've bloody well done today." Covering the sudden wave of sadness with a crooked smile, Gwen gives Ianto a tap on the shoulder. "Go on. And then get some rest. Rhys says he's the only one who had any sleep, so he'll take first watch."

She leans up and kisses them each gently on the cheek. There's still intense worry in her mind as she watches Jack stumble a little, but decides that he's had a really bad two days and isn't properly awake yet. She'd give him some time before really worrying.

It's so quiet twenty minutes later that she goes and checks on them, despite Rhys' warning and rolled eyes. Coming down the hall in the fast-dimming light, she hesitates and then peers around the open bathroom door.

Jack is cleaner now, dressed in sweats, the neck of a t-shirt showing under the fleece, and looking much more, well, present. There is more color in his face now and he's silently tending to Ianto's injuries, the younger man slumped next to him on the rim of the bathtub. suit jacket and waistcoat off. She watches Jack put a finger under Ianto's chin, tipping his face up for inspection and then dabbing at the cut with soft gauze.

For a moment, she thinks of leaving them alone again, but Ianto, as he winces away from the sting of the antiseptic, spots her in the doorway. "Gwen?"

When Jack raises his head, he holds out his free hand to her, palm up. Ianto holds one shaky hand to her as well, and that decides it. She's across the tiny room in three steps, practically falling into their arms. It's been two days, she thinks, two days of worrying and all of them almost dead and Jack actually dead and then dead again...and whoever this was who tried to do it will have hell to pay when she finds them, because they almost killed her baby...

Her whirling mind gets more than a little hysterical at the thought of what Rhys will think if he finds them all here in the bathroom like this, and then Jack is tugging her even closer to them and she doesn't care anymore. She buries her face in Ianto's chest, grateful to hear his heartbeat, and feels Jack's broad hand stroking her hair back from her face.

They're still here, for now. Safe, for now. She slides a hand down to her flat belly, and then fights back a sob when she feels Ianto's hand come down to join her protective gesture, and then Jack's covering both of theirs. Everything seemed so uncertain, but as the teakettle whistled from the kitchen, and she heard Rhys call them to come have some tea at least before resting, she knew they'd keep fighting. But first, they'd rest.


End file.
